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Vandal Poem of the Day: March 15, 2016

by Sherwin Bitsui

Downwind from the body’s yellow teeth,

children whisper night—

amniotic clouds of car exhaust

foaming to a lather above them.

They are later found deboned—

plucked from the narrowing fi eld—

ears pulled back,

a nation growling into them

as they scrape double-plumed birdsongs

from the beaks of drowned hummingbirds

and smash them into eagle-bone whistles

then ringlets of fire

then the blood of orphaned lambs.

from Flood SongFind it in the library

Copyright © 2009 Sherwin Bitsui
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc.
on behalf of Copper Canyon Press.

Published in Poems Sherwin Bitsui

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication, website, exhibit, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the Idaho Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.